Abdel Reheim Ali unveils the story behind Hamas' leader, Khaled Masha'al's visit to Saudi Arabia and how it's but a plan to pressure Egypt to annul the blockade of the Gaza strip. Following the death of King Abdullah and appointing King Salman to be the Crown Prince, the Sudairi Seven seemed to become more stable, yet, differences showed between Egypt and Saudi Arabia on how they deal with the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorist Islamic groups. KSA thinks it's better to put off the confrontation with these groups and assume good intentions to combat the Iranian danger especially after signing the Iran deal with the six countries of America, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany. This move comes after Saudi's last experience of prioritizing the confrontation against ISlamic groups which led to the Mullah rules in 3 countries (Iraq, Lebanon and Syria) along with Yemen which was flooded by Houthis. KSA's strategy mainly depends on unifying Sunni powers to fight the Shiite danger that's anticipated to grow bigger after signing the nuclear deal accompanied by lifting the sanctions and off Iran's trade and frozen assets which will make Iran a competition with a much bigger influence in the region. It seems evident more than ever that the Saudi leadership is fighting the Shiite ebb as opposed to fighting the Islamist groups; something that was much advocated by the late King Abdullah. New leads are talking about how King Salman held calls with Hamas after breaking the four-year old ice showing the initiative in mending gies with Fattah to help with the Palestinian cause, and later meddle in the negotiations between Palestine and Israel. Fahmy Huweidy, a close acquaintance to Hamas' political office corroborated that. In 2007, Saudi Arabia sponsored a convention between Hamas and Fatah but it ended up in it falling out after Hamas took over Gaza. In the middle of this new Saudi stance, Cairo sources said that any agreement concerning the Palestinian case will have to be "stamped and approved by Egypt". According to new reports, the Saudi Foreign Minister suggested during his last visit for Hamas leaders to convene in Egypt under the auspices of president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, but it met a rejection. However, other reports announced that secret meetings were held between the Crown Prince, Mohamed bin Nayef and Deputy Crown Prince, Mohamed bin Salman with Hamas' leaders. The main point of these meetings is for Hamas to assure the Saudi Kingdom that there's no collaboration with Tehran as it has been a supporter to Hamas. And, to help Hamas without depending on Iran, KSA gave Hamas $ 10,000,000. On another note, it's been said that Masha'al mediated between Saudi and the reformative Yemeni Tagamoa' party.Masha'al was accompanied to Saudi by Qatari intelligence on a private jet, yet, Egypt announced it won't be a part of a meeting the MB is a part of. Hamas laid out a plan that in order to help Saudi in Syria and Yemen, Egypt needs to end the Gaza blockade. In a recent meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi and Egyptian editor-in-chiefs where they discussed the importance of reconciliation between the Syrian regime and peaceful opposition in places not held by ISIS. Egypt sees that fighting terrorism fighting terrorism and ISIS comes before fighting Bashar. Egypt later expressed its concerns over inviting Syrian opposition to a meeting saying that the fall of Bashar will only come by having them as leaders, which is a grave danger to Arabs in general and Egypt in particular. While Saudi thinks Islamists are the answer to the Shiite existentialist fight. Saudi recently expressed its indignation towards Egypt's collaboration with the United Arab Emirates in sorting the Yemeni issue out, by talking to both parties including Ali Abdallah Saleh's associates. Other relations Saudi has been concerned about are between Russia and Egypt, saying that this could lead to good Iranian relations as much, something that has been secretly going but never publicized to keep the gulf relations intact. That along with Egypt's desire of crackdown on Islamists caused a little crack in the Saudi-Egypt relations.
